Easy, quick modeling

Even though dental cases have been modeled for decades mainly using the most varied types of dental waxes or PMMA powder-liquid resins, “The better is the enemy of the good.” As the requirements of modern dental technology change, a modern modeling material should also have new, improved and user-friendly properties.

An advanced material that incorporates these properties is primopattern LC from primotec (Westport, Conn.). This article will explain in detail why patterns can be modeled particularly easily and quickly using primopattern due to its material properties.

Dental sculpting waxes are well-established and certainly have many advantages, though they also have disadvantages that are no longer questioned but simply accepted. Technicians have come to terms with them.

Nevertheless, it is, of course, annoying if a bridge distorts unnoticed on removal, if the wax retracts slightly from the metal surfaces of the primary crowns or abutments in the marginal region, if a different wax must be used for every imaginable indication or if there is not a suitable wax available for specific applications (e.g., contact scanning).

Primopattern LC was developed in order to eliminate all these inconvenient disadvantages of conventional modeling materials.

Primopattern is a light-curing, ready-to-use, one-component material that is available as a modeling gel or modeling paste (Fig. 1). As a universal composite material in two consistencies (gel or paste), it can be used for virtually all conventional as well as modern laboratory applications.

In the form of a modeling gel, primopattern LC is easily and precisely applied directly from the dispensing syringe, almost in one step (Fig. 2).

The viscosity of the gel is exactly preset and guarantees quick, precise modeling with high dimensional stability, which ensures that the gel applied does not run (Fig. 3). primopattern gel is also thixotropic, i.e., it flows more easily with vibration and stops as soon as the vibration ceases.

These properties make primopattern LC gel ideal for use in attachment and telescope crown cases (Figs. 4–6).

Other areas of application include the entire range of fixed restorations as well as implant prosthetics. primopattern LC modeling paste (Fig. 7) has a more kneadable consistency in comparison with the gel. This allows the material to be easily kneaded to the shape and adapted. The paste is always used when larger amounts of material (bars, pontics, etc.) need to be applied quickly. It can be combined with primopattern gel without any problem.

For example, with bridge frameworks where the copings of abutment teeth have to be modeled first using primopattern gel, light cured and then prepared. The pontic, which is fabricated using primopattern LC paste, is then simply placed between the finished copings (Fig. 8). The connectors can then be adjusted using gel, if required (Fig. 9).

The gel ensures a good connection between both the polymerized copings and the paste. Additional areas of application for the combined use of paste and gel are:

All types of implant work.

Frameworks for zirconia copy milling machines.

Tertiary frameworks over electroformed mesostructures.

Frameworks for electroformed bridges.

Generally, primopattern can be polymerized in all conventional units with a light spectrum of 320 nm to 500 nm. Metalight units (primotec, Westport, Conn.) are particularly suitable as they have a cooling function that enables the material to be polymerized more gently (Fig. 10). The average polymerization time is between 1.5 and 5 minutes, depending on the light-curing unit.

During polymerization, primopattern maintains its properties and dimensional stability. The material does not have any clinically relevant shrinkage and does not distort, even when it is polymerized in stroboscope units.

It is very satisfying how perfectly the patterns fit following polymerization, without having to separate and reconnect them or insert relief cuts.

Accuracy of fit and stability of the patterns are therefore very basic requirements for the success of laboratory work, particularly with implant bridges (Fig. 11) and bars. In both cases, the implant abutments and copings over the abutments are modeled very effectively with primopattern gel and the pontics and bars with primopattern paste (Fig. 12).

The light-cured patterns should be trimmed and finished with cross-cut carbide burs or rubber polishers.

As primopattern burns out cleanly and completely without residue, it can even be decided at this working stage whether the pattern should be sprued and cast, scanned, copy milled or pressed.

Taking everything into consideration, primopattern LC is an advanced modeling material that meets all the requirements of modern dental technology and is completely universal.

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About the author

Joachim Mosch completed his dental technology and commercial training in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. He was employed for 18 years in the European headquarters of an American dental company, the last 10 years of which was in a general management position. In 2000, he founded his own companies: primotec and primodent. As the innovative engine of the companies, together with his team, he develops new products, technologies and procedures that help increase the quality and efficiency of dental and laboratory work compared with conventional methods. Mosch has published numerous articles on dental technology topics in the best-known dental journals. He is an international lecturer who presents a variety of innovative topics. Contact Joachim Mosch, CDT at 25 Sylvan Road South, Suite N, Westport, CT 06880, +1 866 643 3129, E-mail: mosch@primogroup.de, www.primogroup.de.